Look to Michigan: The ‘defining public university of the future’
U-M’s blueprint for the next decade — Vision 2034 — leverages the community’s excellence at scale to confront the future’s most significant challenges, from AI and precision medicine to campus well-being and carbon neutrality.
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Bridge in a box: Unlocking origami’s power to produce load-bearing structures
For the first time, load-bearing structures like bridges and shelters can be made with origami modules — versatile components that can fold compactly and adapt into different shapes. It’s an advance that could enable communities to quickly rebuild facilities and systems damaged or destroyed during natural disasters, or allow for construction in places that were previously considered impractical, including outer space.
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Futuristic technology reveals secrets in ancient Vesuvius Scrolls
When Italy’s Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, it buried the palatial villa of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, Julius Caesar’s father-in-law. These black and brittle papyri may look like charred croissants, but U-M classicist Richard Janko believes they contain lost masterpieces of literature, history, and philosophy.
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Thirteen days in 1970: The BAM strike
In February 1970, U-M students operating as the Black Action Movement called a strike on classes. They interrupted lectures, banged garbage-can lids in classroom buildings, and hassled fellow students attending class. Their demand to President Robben Fleming: Increase Black enrollment from 3.4 percent to 10 percent.
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Michigan Minds Podcast: Purpose and mattering, featuring John Piette, professor at the U-M School of Public Health
Purpose and mattering. They’re essential to happiness and healthiness, researchers say. But those feelings can be hard to attain, especially for individuals who may be more prone to feeling purposeless. Professor John Piette, director of the U-M Center for Managing Chronic Disease, discusses V-SPEAK, his latest project with U.S. veterans.
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Community force: How a holistic program is changing Detroit one toddler at a time
Brilliant Detroit creates community hubs by transforming houses in need of repair into welcoming sites that deliver early childhood education and family support. More than 19,000 children in 18 area neighborhoods have benefited to date.
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XR and U-M: Extended reality stage expands global education
Michigan explores the academic outer limits, introducing extended and virtual reality to the classroom. Its XR studio opens a new chapter on scalable, personalized, and immersive learning technologies. Oh, the places you’ll go!
Columns
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President's Message
From this day forward: ‘Vision 2034’
U-M's focus for the decade will target key areas with the greatest potential for impact. -
Editor's Blog
Something old, something new
Who's ready for an excellent adventure? Just keep an eye peeled for the (virtual) hot lava. -
Climate Blue
Scenes from a warming climate
Ricky Rood reveals creative ways to gain control over the disruptions caused by climate change by planning for multiple scenarios. -
Health Yourself
It’s time to rethink food labels
Rising prices are not the only challenge consumers face in today's grocery aisle.
‘Gateway for innovation’
The University of Michigan Center for Innovation (UMCI) in Detroit is expected to open in spring 2027. The building broke ground in December and preliminary site work has been ongoing. “The UMCI is a catalyst for positive change and, as such, presents itself along Grand River Avenue as a ‘gateway for innovation,’” said Hana Kassem, FAIA, Design Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF). The first two floors will house public programs, a cafe, and shared office space for the U-M Detroit Center, Admissions Office, School of Environment and Sustainability Clinic, and others. Levels three through six are planned for multidisciplinary graduate research. Watch: MCI design approved, construction ramps up. (All images by Kohn Pedersen Fox.)
